Godus preview: Ambitious, expansive, and “absolutely crazy”

Peter Molyneux's effort to revive the god game makes some bold gameplay choices.

"I think Godus is going to be the best game I've ever worked on," Peter Molyneux told me during a recent interview. "Fable was an epic RPG, but I think the best, most obsessively designed game I've ever done is Godus. It's the game I've played the most, for sure."

The storied creative mind behind Populous, Black and White, and the Fable series, among other games, seems to realize how this statement sounds when it comes out during a pre-PAX interview and demo of the Kickstarter project. After all, Molyneux has developed something of a reputation over the years for promising lofty development goals and gameplay revolutions that don't always shake out in the final product.

But he just can't help himself. Molyneux's enthusiasm for his return to the "god game" genre, the genre that he built his career on, is infectious. He told me he wants to reinvigorate the genre that has suffered a bad name from being applied to social games like FarmVille and CityVille. "That just pisses me off," he said of the mischaracterization.

Learning from the crowd(funding)

Kickstarter backers have been playing a prototype version of Godus since May, and their input has been invaluable in correcting some big design mistakes, Molyneux said. For instance, players found that clicking on each individual house periodically to collect a resource called "belief" felt "too much like FarmVille, Molyneux said.

"I said, 'I want you to collect belief like that, because otherwise you'll spend all your time sculpting and you'll never come back to your followers,'" he recalled. "They said they still hated it."

As a compromise, Molyneux's team came up with a temple upgrade that lets players collect an entire village's belief in a huge ball with a single click, thus proving the value of testers that actually pay for the privilege of affecting the game's development.

A real god game, Molyneux said, is an open world based on simulation and emergent gameplay that lets you "find ways to play this game that us as designers maybe have never thought of." Indeed, the sheer level of simulation in Godus seems to border on the obsessive.

"What I said this time around was 'I want everything to be simulated—every drop of water and every grain of sand,'" he said as he carefully sculpted the edge of a shoreline ridge with a mouse. "When I'm doing this, I'm changing the tidal pattern, and the tidal pattern affects the wind direction, which affects the weather patterns on the entirety of the planet. So you affect your little strip and that effect has a knock-on effect all down the way."

That planet, by the way, has a massive scale that Molyneux said is "about the size of Jupiter, 1,321 times the size of Earth." You can play alone, offline, a single lonely god on your own massive planet, but the real focus seems to be the online game where you and every other player have to learn how to share a single massive ball of land (and where your ridgeline can apparently affect another player's rainfall patterns thousands of miles away).

Each player starts with a buffer zone of about 100 square kilometers, but after about a week, Molyneux says you will inevitably bump up against another player. At that point, you can choose to be an isolationist (throwing up an invisible wall around your hemmed-in bit of the world), you can go to war, or you can join forces to be cooperative gods of a new, larger plot.

"It's going to be very interesting what actually happens," Molyneux said of this open-ended multiplayer interaction. "I have a prediction and it's a very depressing one: I think that everyone's just going to be sickeningly nice. I find it depressing because we put so much effort into the evil side, just like in Fable where only five percent of people ever actually did it."

“There is only one time through”

The core gameplay motivator in Godus, Molyneux said, is taking your small band of followers and shepherding them from the primitive age all the way up through the space age. The basic way to do this is by collecting "belief" that your citizens create while in their houses, then using that belief to do everything from shaping the land and extending roads to poking followers with a "finger of God" or raining down meteor strikes on enemies or threats.

Initially, you just have to build up your population to move on to the next "age" of human development, but those goals change as the game progresses. In the bronze age, for instance, you need to produce a certain number of tools to move on. In the imperial age, your progress is based on the number of weapons you've made.

These changing goals can lead to some unintended effects on your progress if you're not careful, Molyneux said. For instance, the trees and rocks that can be destroyed for some quick belief early on are actually important natural resources in a later ages. By the time you realize that, though, you might be saying, "Shit, I've just deforested the whole world because I quite like the sound of the trees being knocked down," as Molyneux colorfully put it.

And the game won't hold your hand and explain this give and take, Molyneux said. "One of the principles of the game—and this is crazy, it is absolutely crazy, I don't know why… well I do know why—we don't tell you anything about this game at all. It's all about discovery. It's all about realizing—It's the old world of choices and consequences."

When I pointed out that this will probably lead to a lot of trial and error learning your first time through the game, Molyneux replied bluntly, "There is only one time through." While you can technically start a new civilization, Molyneux says he wants to "actively discourage you from restarting, because the joy of this game is so wonderful as you go through and have that point of realization, it's just a joyous thing."

"I don't like this word 'resetting,' because to me, what we're trying to do here is give you a hobby, not just a game," he continued. "When you talk about resetting, that's saying, 'Oh, this time I want to do it perfectly.' And I'm not sure there is a perfect way. You can do some really cruel things to your people, and they'll be more obedient to you, but is that really better than being a green god and not knocking down trees?"

"There's no perfect solution to this stuff, and the easier we make it for people to think, 'Oh, I'll just load in an old game,' the more we break the metaphor."

Don't worry about what's going to happen when you reach the end game, either, Molyneux said. Once you reach the Space Age, the sculpting tools you've been using on cliffs and trees can easily be applied to things like mountains and planets and more. "Space is a big place…" he said cryptically.

The God of Gods

As if that bit of design wasn't controversial enough, Molyneux also discussed the unique power that one player will have over the entirety of the Godus world. This "God of Gods" will have the power to make weekly decrees that affect the way the entire world works for everyone else playing the game online. These effects can range from the trivial ("I'm just a bit pissed off today, and I want everyone to experience the weather in Edinburgh") to the gameplay-centric ("How much belief you get from fighting?") to the moral ("Would it be right to introduce contraception into the world. What effect will that have on the world?")

Currently, the God of Gods is an Edinburgh resident named Brian, the lucky winner of Molyneux's recent block-tapping experiment Curiosity: What's inside the Cube. In thanks for his efforts to help run the simulation, Brian will receive what Molyneux refers to as "substantial royalties" from every Godus sale.

That gig will last only six months, though. At that point, the most powerful players will be able to challenge Brian to a televised face-off, with control of the virtual world on the line. Brian's power in this battle will be based on the number of supporters he can garner from the player base, so he has an incentive to not just troll everyone during his reign.

It's one of the most radical gameplay departures in a game that seems full of them—and full of Molyneux's characteristic ambitions to change everything we thought we knew about video games. The wider world will be able to find out if he can pull it off when Godus goes on sale through Steam Early Access on Sept. 13 for $19, preceding a mobile/tablet release in October.

A real god game, Molyneux said, is an open world based on simulation and emergent gameplay that lets you "find ways to play this game that us as designers maybe have never thought of."...later...Molyneux says he wants to "actively discourage you from restarting, because the joy of this game is so wonderful as you go through and have that point of realization, it's just a joyous thing."

"I don't like this word 'resetting,' because to me, what we're trying to do here is give you a hobby, not just a game,"

"I'm creating a sandbox game where you can do anything, but then I'm going to tell you exactly how to play it because I know what's best. Also, it's not a game, it's your new job!"

I'm actually fairly pumped about Godus. This is a genre that Molyneux founded and excelled in. Flawed as Black & White (yes, I know Populous also existed) was, it was also hugely fun and ambitious and did things that no game has done since.

Will it be perfect? Nope. Will Molyneux oversell it? Probably. But for all his flaws he has vision, and he's willing to try absolutely ridiculous things just to see what happens. I'm definitely looking forward to see what he tries and how it works, even if, ultimately, it ends up crashing and burning.

Molyneux replied bluntly, "There is only one time through." While you can technically start a new civilization, Molyneux says he wants to "actively discourage you from restarting, because the joy of this game is so wonderful as you go through and have that point of realization, it's just a joyous thing."

What if you misclick something important and jack up your whole civ? What if real life intervenes at some crucial point and you lose all your progress? What if there's a damn bug that prevents progress?

I'm willing to give Molyneux a chance here, since this is returning to a genre that he created. That said, I think his fantastic visions of being able to control things down to a level of every grain of sand is just plain bonkers, and I think that even HE knows that isn't possible - not with the kind of power even a top-of-the-line tablet can bring to the table.

I'm a little concerned about the "no restarts" thing, though, combined with his discussion about unintended consequences. It sounds to me like it's possible that you could put yourself into a "spiral-of-death" situation, with no way to escape it, and you're stuck dealing with it - meaning that you can't start over if you've made a catastrophic mistake.

I'm also a touch concerned that he seems to be taking a nod from "Base-building" games like Evony. I don't really like the idea of sharing a world (even a massive world, on the scale he discusses) with random other players online. That sounds like griefer paradise.

Color me tentatively optimistic, but there's so much potential for him to fuck this up... wait and see, wait and see.

"I have a prediction and it's a very depressing one: I think that everyone's just going to be sickeningly nice."

The game Infamous had the same worry. They fixed it by only showing off the "bad" side before launch. I think they even had different embargoes on reviewers for the "good" side and the "evil" side. That way everyone saw how awesome it was to play as the bad guy

Every time I read something like that about Fable I worry for a second that I somehow missed 80% of the game. But only for a second.

Let's not forget that one of Molyneux's touted "features" for Fable (the first one) was a living ecology, where every single tree grew in real-time. That never made it into even Fable 3. He's grand on overplanning, but there's only so much that's possible with the current state of technology, and I don't think he's really in touch with that any more.

As much as I like the guy, and want him to succeed, you have to realize that he's just plain full of shit on some things.

I almost jumped on the Kickstarter for this, but ultimately it was the vids on the site that actually put me off. There was just too much hyperbole for my liking, which has been par for the course lately from old Pete.

I'd love all this to work out, but I'll be reading the reviews first before buying.

Still stuff like this does sound fun:

Quote:

"I have a prediction and it's a very depressing one: I think that everyone's just going to be sickeningly nice. I find it depressing because we put so much effort into the evil side, just like in Fable where only five percent of people ever actually did it."

I'll admit that I find it difficult to do that in a game. I struggled mightily to be the arsehole Shepard...

(Black & White, while interesting was a horrendously flawed and buggy game.)

Black & White had two problems - it relied far too much on his love of unintended consequences, and ultimately, it just wasn't fun.

Which sounds like the main pitfalls that Godus risk falling into as well. For the record I agree about B&W - and I worry about his choice of words in this preview about Godus being a "hobby" instead of a game. If I want a hobby that's what I'll invest in - on my computer I want a game to enjoy.

I'm a little concerned about the "no restarts" thing, though, combined with his discussion about unintended consequences. It sounds to me like it's possible that you could put yourself into a "spiral-of-death" situation, with no way to escape it, and you're stuck dealing with it - meaning that you can't start over if you've made a catastrophic mistake.

I'm the type of gamer that wants those constraints enforced sometimes. At my core I'm a min/maxer/completionist. That was fun when I was a kid and had time for it. Now that I've got a family I don't have time, but old habits die hard. Those types of games are still enjoyable (ME/Skyrim) but knowing that I don't have time to play the way I would prefer does take away some of the fun out of it.

I absolutely LOVE how passionate he sounds about his projects: some times it pans out, others it doesn't. Even with that in mind, he always manages to produce something unique. While some of his games might be more fun to play than others, I admire his conviction and I'm more than happy to support him and his team's work.

I'm the type of gamer that wants those constraints enforced sometimes. At my core I'm a min/maxer/completionist. That was fun when I was a kid and had time for it. Now that I've got a family I don't have time, but old habits die hard. Those types of games are still enjoyable (ME/Skyrim) but knowing that I don't have time to play the way I would prefer does take away some of the fun out of it.

Sure, but "spiral-of-death" scenarios generally mean that you have no chance of recovering - any actions you take will make things worse, until everything's dead. If you can't restart, then you just can't PLAY at that point. How is that in any way a desirable outcome, even on a metagaming level? Sure, you want to have some risk of "losing," but having players lose and unable to try again sounds like a way to shoot your own game in the head.

Regardless of his success in actual implementation, I'm really happy to hear that his design approach mirrors what I want in a game.

I really like these two quotes:

'A real god game, Molyneux said, is an open world based on simulation and emergent gameplay that lets you "find ways to play this game that us as designers maybe have never thought of."'

'"One of the principles of the game—and this is crazy, it is absolutely crazy, I don't know why… well I do know why—we don't tell you anything about this game at all. It's all about discovery. It's all about realizing—It's the old world of choices and consequences."'

Since so many developers these days seem to be going in the opposite direction, it's very refreshing to see Molyneux standing up for this old style of design. And I appreciate that he considers it "crazy" for a modern game to take this approach.

It really gives me hope for the industry. Hopefully if he succeeds, more games like this will follow.

He didn't say you can't restart. He merely tried to discourage people from doing so. You may not be able to restart with exactly the same parameters (it might plop you down into a different random point in the world), but many games work that way.

Quote:

While you can technically start a new civilization, Molyneux says he wants to "actively discourage you from restarting, because the joy of this game is so wonderful as you go through and have that point of realization, it's just a joyous thing."

The game could be fun. I really loved the god games back in the day. I would not consider farmville a god game however. Also some of his ideas sound fun but I don't know if I want to be playing with random people.

I'm actually fairly pumped about Godus. This is a genre that Molyneux founded and excelled in. Flawed as Black & White (yes, I know Populous also existed) was, it was also hugely fun and ambitious and did things that no game has done since.

Will it be perfect? Nope. Will Molyneux oversell it? Probably. But for all his flaws he has vision, and he's willing to try absolutely ridiculous things just to see what happens. I'm definitely looking forward to see what he tries and how it works, even if, ultimately, it ends up crashing and burning.

I think he has a limited vision in his execution. From the Fable III game play he must be a guy who thinks you can win someones heart by buying them expensive gifts. In fact that's all that game was about accumulated wealth with nothing tangible to spend it on. No real depth, Im sorry I dont care how ambitious his games are their flat and shallow and he has not learned his lesson yet. You need to let people experience the game the way they want to, and he does not do that.

I'm willing to give Molyneux a chance here, since this is returning to a genre that he created. That said, I think his fantastic visions of being able to control things down to a level of every grain of sand is just plain bonkers, and I think that even HE knows that isn't possible - not with the kind of power even a top-of-the-line tablet can bring to the table.

I think it's extremely unlikely that he will limit his simulation for the sake of tablets rather than use the full power of a desktop PC. If he is supporting tablets as a platform, I imagine the simulation (and maybe graphics) could be scaled down. I agree though that "every grain of sand" is ridiculous, but it's possible he's putting in the capabilities for very detailed simulation that will require future PCs to actually run.

I'm a little concerned about the "no restarts" thing, though, combined with his discussion about unintended consequences. It sounds to me like it's possible that you could put yourself into a "spiral-of-death" situation, with no way to escape it, and you're stuck dealing with it - meaning that you can't start over if you've made a catastrophic mistake.

The article states that you can actually restart (or at least start a new game), it's just highly discouraged. That sounds fine to me. I think his goal is to make the game as immersive as possible, and encouraging you to accept the choices that you've made is a good way to do that.

It's refreshing to see a developer with that kind of actual strong vision these days. If anything, I worry that the play testers will water down his design to lowest common denominator mediocrity.

Damn it I love the crazy man anyway. Of course he'd build a game of similar amition to what Spore was supposed to be! Why not? At least someone is trying, rather than building another clone of Darksouls or another MMO and calling it innovation.

> "When I'm doing this, I'm changing the tidal pattern, and the tidal pattern affects the wind direction, which affects the weather patterns on the entirety of the planet. So you affect your little strip and that effect has a knock-on effect all down the way."

Not only is this simulation implausibly processor-heavy, but he has the chain of cause and effect all wrong. Primarily, winds drive currents, not the other way around. Probably this is just an idea he had without research or any sort of technical feasibility study.

I was quite worried about how they were going to handle the Curiosity reward but reading this I rather like it. A sort of disconnected epic battle for the god of gods while Im king of my own bit of the universe. Rather than take any significant control from me it looks like itll just make the world more interesting.

It was a pretty cheap kickstarter and I expected something pretty basic to scratch my Populous itch so there isnt much to lose even if I get carried away in Molyneuxs usual hype.

Despite the over hyping I think he still stands as one of the best games designers there has ever been, and one whos ideas are sorely under utilised in the industry. It took this long, some indie studios and kickstarters to reboot Syndicate (Satellite Reign) and Dungeon Keeper (War for the Overworld which I know he has been a vocal supporter of.)

Im glad to see these older under-explored ideas get dug up and look forward to seeing how this Populous like game works out.

Kyle Orland / Kyle is the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica, specializing in video game hardware and software. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He is based in Pittsburgh, PA.